speuce-CtAll aphis. 269 



piercing into them with their suckers, and then disappearing 

 into the chambers of the gall. When this " Pseiido Cone" 

 has reached its full growth, which may be in four to six 

 weeks, it hardens, the cells split open, and the contained 

 young Chermes come out in numbers. The pupa3 are powdery, 

 lead-coloured, and margined and greenish at the sides, from 

 the indications of the tint of the coming wings. When fully 

 developed the skin cracks, and the perfectly-winged insect 

 appears — figured magnified at p. 267 (the natural length, at 

 rest with the wings folded, is about the eighth of an inch). 

 The colour is of a yellowish green, with whitish green wings, 

 transparent green legs, and five-jointed horns, also of trans- 

 parent green ; sometimes the colour of the insect is reddish. 



The winged females disperse themselves and begin to lay, 

 and soon may be found dead by their little heaps of about 

 twenty eggs.* "The larvfe which hatch from this second 

 deposit of eggs" . . . " are, in the next spring, the mother 

 Chermes of the attack of the current year." 



Wingless male. — In Mr. Buckton's paper on C. ahietis, 

 published in 1883, in his fourth volume of 'Brit. Aphides,' he 

 mentions having searched in vain for winged males amongst 

 the thousand forms he had reared under bell-glasses, and up 

 to that time the records of observation of the male appear to 

 have been very doubtful. In July of that year, however, 

 amongst a number of galls or " Pseudo Cones " which I had 

 myself been so fortunate as to forward to him, Mr. Buckton 

 "detected, just under a scale, a single apterous insect, which 

 proved to be the sex long missing." This was " exceedingly 

 minute, yellow, blind, apterous, antennae rudimentary and 

 composed of three joints only. Eostrum very short. Head 

 broad and joined to the body without the intervention of any 

 well-marked thorax. Abdomen large and deeply ringed," &c. 

 — (Vol. of 'Brit. Aphides,' above quoted, p. 31.) 



Prevention and Piemedies. — When Spruce trees in young 

 woods are much infested they should be felled, and, if cut 

 down in summer whilst the galls are green, all gall-laden 

 shoots should be cut off and burnt. In winter this pre- 

 caution is not needed, as the old galls are empty, and, if the 

 mother Chermes should lay on the felled shoots, the buds 



* The above notes of life-history of the C. ahietis, and coincidences in the 

 progress of the galls and their Chermes tenants, were taken by myself from long 

 and careful observations of the infestations on Spruce Firs in the plantations of 

 my late father, Geo. Ormerod, at Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire. This being 

 before the iDublication of Mr. Buckton's standard work on Aphides, I had not 

 the ojDportunity of comparing my observations ; but those who wish to study the 

 subject in e.rtenso, with the variations of colouring and many other points of 

 great scientitic interest, will find it excellently given in his work on British 

 Aphides, quoted above. 



